


Christmas as it Never Was

by Windona



Category: Smallville
Genre: Episode Fix-it, Episode Tag, Gen, Spirit Guides
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-01-21
Updated: 2019-01-21
Packaged: 2019-10-13 19:08:51
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,493
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17493584
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Windona/pseuds/Windona
Summary: Thanks to the Crystal of Fire, Seg ended up as Lex's spiritual guide instead of Lillian.Which means that Lex is in for a completely different near-death spiritual experience after he got shot.





	Christmas as it Never Was

The too familiar feeling of hot metal pierced into Lex’s skin, and burrowed deeply. He was not unfamiliar with pain, but his flesh was still mortal. The cold air dug into the tunnels left behind, leaching out all feeling as Lex went unconscious.

“Come on dad, wake up!”

The gentle shaking motions of a soft bed lulled Lex awake. He groggily blinked his eyes open and started.

There was a teenage boy with black hair staring at him, smiling. Lex felt his chest, and his fingers felt unbroken flesh.

“Come on dad, we have to get the Christmas tree. I still don’t get why we have to wait until Christmas morning.”

Lex paused, trying to take this in before going along with it. “Right. What about your mom?”

The teenager (his son?) looked at him strangely. “I don’t have one, remember? And Clark really doesn’t like being called that.”

“Right.” Lex sat up. “I think I need to wake up a bit more.” With his son stepping aside, Lex headed towards the bathroom and immediately splashed cold water on his face.

“I must be hallucinating,” Lex murmured, trying to figure out what happened. There were no meteor freaks in the area, so that couldn’t be it.

“Near death spiritual experiences are like that, aren’t they?”

Turning behind him, Lex saw a man with a familiar square jaw and dark hair, though the similarities highlighted the differences. His rich blue shirt and black jacket looked unlike any fashion he was familiar with despite the stylized ‘s’ on it.

“Great, I’m hallucinating, and I have a subconscious obsession with Clark.”

“Subconscious?” The stranger then shook his head. “Well, actually I am his biological grandfather. And thanks to the time he healed you with the Crystal of Fire, and the fact that he didn’t know how to make the crystal not respond to his subconscious desires, well, here I am, stuck as tour guide of your own spiritual experience.”

Lex paused. “So what is it I’m experiencing?”

The man smiled and leaned forward. “The future you could have, if you make the right choice. I could have warned you by showing what would happen if you make the wrong one, but honestly post-apocalyptic worlds are just so miserable. So choose well, and enjoy.”

With that, the man disappeared, leaving Lex to take a deep breath and go face his son.

The boy looked so much like Clark at that age that it startled him. But then the boy smiled at him, and his lips twitched up in a perfectly Lexian way that served as a reminder about the boy’s parentage.

“Are you ready?” Lex picked up his keys and dangled them.

“Born ready.” The boy leapt up from the couch and headed over. “I can pick the tree?”

“Of course,” Lex said, ruffling his son’s hair as they headed out.

The ride from the mansion was comfortably silent as the boy looked out the window. Lex was planning how to learn his son’s name without making his own ignorance obvious. Even as the snowy Smallville landscape sped past, Lex couldn’t help but glance at the boy. He was relaxed, strong, and clearly unafraid of him.

At the last thought, something within him unwound. It was a victory that in the dark of night he feared he would never be able to achieve.

Finally, they made it to the Christmas Tree market. The pine scented air set the Christmas mood, and fat snowflakes only enhanced it. It was everything he dreamed of as a kid, wandering through the trees and debating the merits of each one with ease and humor.

“That one has too many branches on the left side, and not enough on the right,” his son said.

“That wouldn’t be an issue if we put the tree in the corner of the room,” Lex countered.

“Aren’t trees supposed to be in the middle? That would make decorating easier.” There was a hint of unease in his son’s words that made Lex frown, but before he could think much more on it he heard his name being called.

“Lex! Conner!” Chloe’s voice rang out with her presence as she went to hug both in turn. “Hey, you guys wait until the last minute too?”

Conner shrugged. “You know dad. And, well, I guess Wolf’s an issue too.”

She laughed at that, as a far too familiar man walked up behind her.

Lex’s jaw twitched at the sight of Oliver Queen.

“Hey guys, it’s been a while. How are things going with your team?”

Conner smiled. “Things are going well. We beat Doctor Phosphorous recently. You should have seen the shot Artemis made.”

Oliver genuinely laughed. “I’m sure it was amazing. Keep up the good work kid!” Leaning over to Lex, Oliver said, “And hey, remember to make the next League meeting.”

Chloe looked between all of them and smiled. “Well then, Ollie and I have our tree to gather and our Christmas to have. We might stop by the Kent’s for the Christmas and Nova Cycle celebration, but if not, we’ll see you soon.”

The lack of animosity from Oliver made Lex unwind as he processed that. Given what Oliver was like the last time Lex saw him, he thought there would never be anything but barely contained hatred between them. Honestly, Lex didn’t want to make nice with the man who made his school days hell. But if he was part of some League with the man, and Oliver was with Chloe, he was glad Oliver didn’t make life difficult.

Finally, Conner had paused in front of a grand tree. “This one is perfect, dad.” Lex couldn’t help but agree. It was symmetrical, well shaped, and awe inspiring.

“Then that’s the one we’ll get.”

Lex turned to find the person to pay for it when he saw Conner pick up the entire tree and practically hoist it over his head.

“Conner!”

The boy had the sense to look sheepish, then lower it. Clearly play acting, he pouted, and said, “Dad, can you help me carry this?”

“Sure son,” Lex said, moving to grab the lighter top as they carried it over to be netted and paid for. It wasn’t that odd, he thought. A Christmas tree usually weighed about fifty pounds, and Conner clearly was muscular.

But the way Conner immediately play acted at being weak, instead of realizing Lex meant he should be more careful with the tree, set off alarm bells.

As they decorated the tree, the same part of Lex’s mind that picked apart Clark’s lies started whirring. His son was used to being told to pretend to not be as strong. That meant there was a reason to hide his strength. Was Conner a meteor freak, albeit a rare stable one? Was it related to his father’s healing factor?

“Hey dad,” Conner said, piercing through Lex’s thoughts, “Do you mind if I go take Wolf for a walk? I want to exercise him before going over to the farm.”

“Sure,” Lex said, looking over the tree. He needed a moment to process this. Especially the fact that his son’s dog was apparently not a dog but an actual gigantic wolf.

Looking out the window as his son disappeared into the distance, Lex muttered, “How did I deserve him?”

“You loved him, cared for him, and allowed him to make his own choices while being there when he made bad ones.” Clark’s grandfather materialized in the room, apparently looking at the tree. “You’d be amazed how far true respect and seeing a person for who they are rather than who you want them to be will get you.”

Lex thought back to his father’s own controlling behavior. “Fair point. But I assume he had a mother at some point, Mr.?”

“Just call me Seg. And that’s for me to know, and you to find out.”

With that, Seg disappeared. A phone that appeared more screen than keypad rang in his pocket. The caller ID said ‘Mercy’.

“Sir, Conner was taken.”

Ice bloomed in Lex’s stomach. “Did you ID who took him?”

“Sir, it appears to be the Kryptonian criminal General Zod. He’s making an announcement on TV.”

Lex barely processed it as he turned the oddly sleek television on.

A bald man with a beard and a harsh symbol on his chest had his unconscious son in his grasp. His booming voice echoed even through the speakers. “Kal-El, I have your abomination here. Present yourself to me, or this whelp will perish.”

Lex watched in horror, distanced as his thoughts went to wondering who this Kal-El was and what this monster meant. “It’s definitely a trap,” Lex muttered.

“Agreed,” Mercy said, apparently still on the phone. “Sir, we don’t have much time, and it looks like Superman and Supergirl will need our help. I think it’s time to break out the exosuit we’ve been working on.”

Those words snapped him to attention. “How soon?”

He could hear Mercy’s smirk. “Your chopper should be there in about five minutes and will have you to the lab in twenty.”

“Good.” Lex took a deep breath and headed for the helicopter on top of the mansion. As the chopper raced him to the lab, he used his phone to watch the news.

He saw a man and a woman in blue and red streak through the sky and confront Zod. He saw Zod drop Conner, only for the blonde woman to catch him. Then he saw the man and woman get ambushed by people in uniforms bearing Zod’s symbol, with strange technology that brought them to their knees.

His heart almost skipped a beat. He rushed to the lab and followed Mercy’s directions towards the exosuit she was so certain could stop the man.

The suit was large. Metallic green with purple accents invited him in, and even with the situation he could not help but stop to admire its beauty.

“Sir, the suit was been prepped and calibrated. All you need to do is go in. And sir? I know you were hesitant about including a kryptonite ray, but that may be just the thing you need to stop Zod. It’s in the right palm.”

Lex nodded. “Thank you, Mercy. Wish me luck.” He then clambered into the suit and found himself instinctually piloting it. The thrusters roared as he streaked over the Metropolis skyline, racing towards the spot he knew Zod was gloating.

He spotted energy arcing into the man and woman with an oddly familiar S on their chests. He saw his son, lying on a nearby rooftop. And he saw Zod’s minions grinning with cruel glee.

He shot a blast of kryptonite from his right palm, and Zod screamed in pain. Then he shot at the strange disks that were hurting the imprisoned man and woman.

“Thank you,” the man said, and at a closer glance he looked oddly like Clark. “Supergirl and I can hold off Zod, Faora, and Non. You go check on your son.” Ignorant of Lex’s surprise, the man flew off and began fighting.

He did not need any more prompting. He flew over to Conner, and helped his son sit up as he stirred awake. “Are you alright?”

Conner huffed out a worrying sound, and only then did Lex notice that he had apparently changed into a black shirt with a familiar stylized S in red.

“Nothing a little sunlight and rest won’t handle, though I’m not sure if I can rejoin the fight,” Conner said. “Dad, did you break out the exosuit?”

“You were in danger.” Nothing else needed to be said about that.

“So cool. Now kick their butts.”

Even if Conner couldn’t see it, Lex grinned. “I’ll make it short. We still have Christmas with the Kents, after all.” And with that, he fired up the boosters to help even the odds against the General.

He carefully aimed his kryptonite beams at the soldiers, avoiding his primary color clad allies. It became sort of a dance, where he hit them and then the man or the woman followed up with a punch. He had to dodge a few blows, and that’s not to his allies never received some in return. But it was clear his arrival had turned the tide, and allowed the three enemy kryptonians to be beaten, then cuffed with highly advanced hand cuffs and collars that whirred and bore the LexCorp logo.

As it became clear that the threat had ended, Metropolites came out of their homes and businesses to cheer. The MPD had officers escort the now powerless criminals off, hopefully to an incredibly impenetrable prison. He felt the adulation, but somehow it wasn’t as important as he once thought it to be.

“I’d love to stay, but I do have a family Christmas to attend,” he told the suspiciously Clark-like man.

The man just smiled. “Of course. Look after Superboy, and we can wrap up here.”

Lex nodded slightly. With that, he went to the roof Conner had been laying on. Now he was standing, albeit clutching his ribs slightly.

“I think after a day like this, we need presents and hot cocoa.”

Conner grinned. “That sounds amazing dad. Let’s go!”

Lex scooped up Conner his arms with only mild protesting before flying his son back to the lab, and once out of the exosuit towards the Kent farm via the mansion.

Martha Kent, with more laugh lines and no less love, opened the door and ushered them in. “Conner, I saw what happened! Are you alright?”

“Just bruised ego and ribs, Grandma.”

Martha tutted. “Come, sit down. I’ll get you some egg nog, and you need to be more careful.”

Lex laughed at that, glad to see Conner get proper mothering. He looked into the main room, where Lois was hugging Clark and whispering something into his ear. He also noticed an oddly familiar blonde woman in plain clothes placing presents under the tree.

He felt out of place for a moment when he felt a strong hand clap him on the back. He turned to see Jonathan Kent, older and hopefully wiser.

“You know, son, I have to admit I’m glad you were there today.”

“I was where?” Lex said, testing the waters.

Jonathan looked unimpressed. “I know it was you piloting that suit, son. And if it weren’t for you, who knows how many people wouldn’t be here.”

“Say we can start the bonfire soon,” the blonde woman said, handing them slips of paper. “I’m getting hungry, and we can’t eat until after the bonfire.”

Jonathan rolled his eyes at her impatience. “Alright, Kara. Lex, remember to write down something you want to burn away or leave in the past.”

Lex looked at his piece of paper and turned it over. He never heard of Nova Cycle or such a tradition, but it could not hurt to play along. He thought over what he wanted to burn, or do away with, when he saw Clark approach him.

The glasses were new, along with his sheer presence, but he still had on the familiar plaid and a gentle Clark smile. “Thinking heavy thoughts?”

“Well,” he said, gesturing to Conner and the paper. “More like all-encompassing ones. What are you thinking of writing on your paper?”

“Secretiveness,” Clark joked.

Old hurts welled up at that. “It did almost destroy our friendship.”

Clark snorted. “I was planning to tell you when I graduated high school, and my parents couldn’t say no, but then I saw your creepy stalker room and felt that it was better I didn’t.”

“It was not a creepy stalker room.”

“It had a giant picture of my face and pictures of my parents so you will never convince me otherwise. And you even admitted you went too far with the Belle Reve escapees.”

Lex winced at that. Given how close it was to killing the Kents and Lana, he had to agree.

Clark saw that and huffed. “Hey, I accepted your apology when you finally gave it to me and my family, remember? And you stuck to your word? I never stopped caring about you, you know. It’s just that you needed to learn something about boundaries. And you’ve more than made up with it with all the lives you’ve saved, through LexCorp and your work with the League.”

“Well, I wanted a better world for Conner.” Even though Lex didn’t remember what led to this future, those words felt right.

“The best thing you ever gave him was your best self,” Clark said. “And that makes him one of the luckiest kids in the world.”

Lex felt warm at that and couldn’t help but go outside for a minute to scribble on his slip _my worst self._ It wasn’t all encompassing or a precise step, but it was something.

“I have to have this future,” he said to himself.

“And you can. It is so close within reach, all you need to do is grasp it.”

Lex whirled around to see Seg again, standing right outside the Kent’s house. His eyes widened as he matched the symbol on Seg’s jacket to the two people who he fought against Zod with.

Seg smirked as he noticed Lex’s attention. “It means hope. Hope that there is a better tomorrow, and that it can be achieved. But my family has always known that hope is something to work for, every day. It can take sweat, blood, and tears, but in the end it’s always worth it.” Seg gestured at the Kent house. “Heal. Overcome your demons. And fight for that better tomorrow, with those you love most, for we are stronger together. That is how you can become an El.”

Seg pointed at Lex’s shirt. He patted a hand down, and pulled out metal engraved with that same stylized S. He traced it with his fingers. “I see.”

He lost himself in his thoughts for a bit, before feeling a gentle tug at his arm. “Dad, we’ve got to put our papers into the kindling.”

Lex grinned as he was half dragged towards a well-ordered pile of kindling. “You already wrote on yours?”

Conner rolled his eyes. “After today? It was pretty easy to think of something.”

Lex threw his slip into the kindling as everyone else did the same. Kara grinned, and stood behind the pile.

“Today, by Rao’s grace, we burn away the sins and faults of old. Today we are reborn better than we were yesterday. For Today Is NOVA!”

At that, she shot fire from her eyes into the pile of wood, and everyone cheered at the flames grew high and consumed the slips of paper. He slung an arm around Conner’s shoulders. Conner responded by fulling embracing him. Lex rested in the warmth of the moment, and then felt the world drift away.

 

* * *

 

Lex woke up to the typical beeping sound that told him he was in a hospital. He shivered, suddenly feeling cold and wanting to go back to sleep. He saw the cold ceiling, and he could not stop “Conner…” coming from his lips.

“Lex, son, I’m here,” his father said, placing an iron hand on Lex’s shoulder. “You’re in Metropolis, at the Davis’ clinic. You’ve been shot.”

It took him a second, but Lex placed where he had been before that dreamlike future. Granville, meeting with Griff, hot lead through his flesh.

It was mildly concerning that he was getting familiar with being shot.

“Right,” he said before spying his cell phone. “I need to speak to my doctor, know the details of my condition.”

“Of course,” his father said with that oh-so-convincing charm. “I will fetch him for you.”

Lex listened to the echoing of his father’s shoes, and when they were faint enough he grabbed his phone and called the one number he never took off speed dial.

“Lex?” Clark’s weary voice was clear. “It’s Christmas. Don’t you have something to do today?”

“Considering I just woke up after being shot, I think my schedule for the day is clear.”

There was a pause. He could practically feel Clark coming to attention. “Woke up? Is there any permanent damage?”

“I don’t think so, but my doctor should be clearing things up with me any second.”

“And your first instinct was to call me? Lex, you should be resting.”

“I-” Lex suddenly did not know what he wanted out of this conversation. He had so much to say, and so much to ask. But that would have to come later. “I have to talk to you. When can you next come by?”

“Give me an hour.”

Lex sighed in relief. It would not be easy. But his near-death experience made him realize that he wanted to be happy. And the key to happiness was love and hope.

If he wanted to make a good future for Conner, then repairing his relationship with Clark was the first step.

 

**Author's Note:**

> Lillian Luthor wasn't exactly the best spirit guide, giving Lex the lesson that 'you can struggle, do the right thing, and as a result you will have to sit back and do nothing as your wife dies and your perfect life becomes that much harder!'
> 
> Also, I can't see Lex being happy with being and ordinary person for too long. He's way too curious.
> 
> So I wondered how things would go with a different spirit guide, and then the idea of Seg and Lex snarking at each other got me.
> 
> For those Smallville fans unfamiliar with Seg, he's from Syfy's new show Krypton, and he's a Kryptonian disaster who also happens to be Clark's biological grandfather.


End file.
